LOOP, TEXAS. Loop, at the junction of State Highway 83 and Farm Road 303 in northeastern Gaines County, was named by its first postmaster after the cowboy's rope trick and the cattle brand "O" or "Loop" of the area ranch. The Quinns were among the first ranchers in the area in the 1890s, and Joe Sherman was the first settler in 1905. Originally the community was called Blue Goose, but the post office department approved the name Loop in 1912. The school also dates from 1912. Sources differ on whether the community's original post office was established in 1905, 1907, or 1912. Through the early 1990s Loop has remained a small community near oilfields and Little Cedar Lake with a school, a post office, and other businesses, including a gin and fertilizer plant. Its population was reported as 315 in 1980 through 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gaines County Historical Survey Committee, The Gaines County Story, ed. Margaret Coward (Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1974). Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

William R. Hunt